Jesus tells a story about two sons

28 Jesus said to the Jewish leaders, ‘Tell me what you think about this story. A man had two sons. He went to the older son and he said, “Son, go and work in my field today.”

29 The older son replied, “I do not want to go and work there today.” But after he had said that, he did go and work in the field.

30 The man went to his other son and he said the same thing to him. The second son replied, “Yes, father, I will go.” But then he did not go to work in the field.

31 Tell me, which of the man's sons did what his father wanted?’

The Jewish leaders replied, ‘The older son did what his father wanted.’

Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you this. The men who take taxes from people are going into the kingdom of God before you. It is the same with prostitutes. They also are going into the kingdom of God before you. 32 John the Baptist came to show you the right way to live. You did not believe him. But the men who take taxes did believe him. Prostitutes also believed him. Even after you saw this, you did not believe him. You did not change the way that you live.’

Jesus tells a story about wicked farmers

33 Then Jesus said to the Jewish leaders, ‘Listen to another story that I will tell you. There was a man who had his own farm. He planted vines in a vineyard to grow grapes there. He built a wall around the vineyard. He dug a hole in the ground for a winepress to make wine. He also built a tower to watch over the garden.

The man then found some farmers to work in the vineyard for him. Then he went away to another country. 34 When it was nearly time for the harvest, the master sent his servants to speak to the farmers. He wanted them to give him his fruit from the vines. 35 But the farmers took hold of the servants. They hit one of them with sticks. They killed another one. They threw stones at another servant and killed him. 36 So the master sent other servants to go to the farmers. He sent more servants than the first time. But the farmers did the same thing to those servants too. 37 After that, the master sent his own son to the farmers. He thought, “The farmers will surely respect my son.”

38 The farmers saw the master's son coming. They said to each other, “This is the master's own son. The farm will belong to him when his father dies. So we should kill the son and then the farm will belong to us.” 39 So the farmers took hold of the son. They threw him out of the vineyard and they killed him.’

40 Jesus then said, ‘One day, the master will return to his vineyard. What do you think he will do then to those farmers?’

41 The Jewish leaders said to Jesus, ‘The master will completely destroy those wicked people. Then he will give the vineyard to other farmers to take care of it. Those new farmers will give the master the fruit that he should have at the time of harvest.’

42 Jesus said to them, ‘I am sure that you have read this in the Bible:

“The builders refused to use a certain stone.

They thought that it had no value.

But now that stone has become the most important stone at the corner of the building.

The Lord God did this.

We can see that he did something great.”

43 I tell you this. Because you do not believe in me, God will take his kingdom away from you. He will give it to people who show that they obey him.

44 When a person falls onto that stone, it will break his body into pieces. When that stone falls on top of someone, it will destroy him completely.’

45 The leaders of the priests and the Pharisees heard what Jesus said in his stories. They knew that he was speaking against them. 46 They wanted to take hold of him and put him in prison. But they did not try to do it because they were afraid of the people. The people thought that Jesus was a prophet from God.

Matthew 22

Jesus tells a story about a marriage party

1 Jesus continued to use stories to teach the people. 2 He said, ‘This is what the kingdom of heaven is like. A king prepared a special meal for his son's marriage. 3 He asked many people to come. When the meal was ready, he sent his servants out to tell those people to come. But they refused to come.

4 So the king then sent out other servants. He said to them, “Tell this message to all those people that I have asked to come. Tell them that the master says, ‘My servants have prepared the meal. They have killed my large oxen and some fat young cows to eat. Everything is ready. Now come to the marriage party!’ ”

5 But the people did not think that the king's message was important. They went away to do their own work. One man went to his farm and another man went to his business. 6 Other people took hold of the king's servants. They hurt them and they killed them. 7 The king was very angry. He sent his soldiers to the city where those people lived. They killed the people who had murdered the king's servants. They destroyed their city with fire.

8 Then the king said to his other servants, “The meal for my son's marriage is ready. But the people that I had asked to come did not deserve to come. 9 So go out now to the town's streets where people meet together. Ask all the people that you find there to come to the marriage party.” 10 Then those servants went out into the streets. They brought to the king's house all the people that they met. Some were good people and some were bad people. Very many people came. The room for the marriage party was full!

11 Then the king came into the room to see all the people. He saw one man who was not wearing the right clothes for a marriage. 12 The king said to the man, “How did you come in here, my friend? You are not wearing the right clothes for a marriage.” The man could not answer the king.

13 The king said to his servants, “Tie his hands and his feet. Take him and throw him into the dark place outside. There, people will cry and they will bite their teeth together.”

14 God asks many people to come to him. But he only chooses a few people to be there with him.’